A Difficult Mission! Naruto vs Sarashi
by Pen of Gaia
Summary: Naruto and Jiraiya are sent on a special mission by the Fifth to defeat a renegade ninja from the Moon village. Chapter 2 - Nightfall is up. Sorry for the delay.
1. Default Chapter

This story takes place in an alternate timeline, between the point when Jiraiya and Naruto bring Tsunade-hime back to Konoha to become the Fifth Hokage and Naruto joins his team again. That being said, I don't own or claim to own the rights to Naruto.

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**Naruto and Jiraiya Teamup! The Varied-Technique Ninja.**

The noonday sun shone through the leaves of the thinning trees on the edge of the Country of Fire's vast forests, draping itself over a mismatched pair of ninja. Jiraiya of the Sannin of Konoha and his pupil Uzumaki Naruto walked casually on a worn dirt path toward the next village.

Naruto turned to Jiraiya, "Hey, Perverted Hermit, where exactly are we going?"

Jiraiya tilted his head down toward Naruto. "I've told you this before, right? Why do you keep asking?"

Naruto glared back indignantly. "I'm just bored, that's all." In all actuality, Naruto's short attention span had prevented most of Jiraiya's explanation from sticking in memory.

With a sigh, Jiraiya took up his now-well-recited explanation for the sake of Naruto once more. "A missing-nin of the Hidden Village of the Moon is thought to be killing members of an isolated village on our Country of Fire's border. Apparently his motive is money, but it's obvious he's not a pushover. A few Jounin were sent there to quarantine him. He killed them all, each with a different technique."

"You say that as if it's unusual. There are thousands of jutsu in the world. Why would it be unusual?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Well, usually when a ninja is fighting other ninja as strong as Jounin, they use a signature or favored technique to kill them all, rather than a separate technique they might not know as well. With Kakashi, it's his Chidori; with Gai, it's one of his overly flashy taijutsu. You get the idea. But to use different techniques on ninja that highly skilled... It would require a ninja with very diverse knowledge of techniques, almost like a Sharingan user."

Naruto suddenly tensed. "You don't think... that this ninja is Sasuke's brother, do you?"

"Relax, Naruto. I already told you that the ninja is a missing-nin of the Hidden Village of the Moon. Besides, Itachi wouldn't waste his time with useless attacks against a nearly defenseless village." Naruto was visibly relieved by this. "But! Don't underestimate him. A ninja capable of taking out a couple of Jounin is still far too strong for you, even if you did learn to use the Rasengan." Naruto frowned at Jiraiya, but Jiraiya let his comment stay. Naruto had been getting overconfident since his successful use of the Rasengan, and it was too dangerous for him to keep that attitude.

"Hey, if he's that strong, why did Tsunade-bachan send us after him?" Naruto asked after a short pause. Not that he was complaining: Naruto always looked forward to his next challenging opponent. It was just that it made much for sense for the Fifth Hokage to send a stronger group of Jounin, or an ANBU squad.

"A good question. I wonder what she was thinking?" Jiraiya pondered aloud. In reality, he knew exactly what she was up to. He thought back to the private conversation he had had with the Tsunade.

_"I'm going to send you and Naruto on a mission. A difficult one," Tsunade had said to Jiraiya shortly after her appointment as the Fifth Hokage. She explained the details to Jiraiya in much the same way Jiraiya had explained them to Naruto._

_Jiraiya looked at her questioningly. "Why assign the two of us?"_

_"Naruto-kun's strength seems to come out when he's in danger." Tsunade explained simply._

_"I already know that. And I've already done work with him to bring out his potential." Jiraiya replied. "However, my work didn't involve throwing him against an enemy that is so obviously superior in strength. Why send him to fight someone who could kill him so easily?"_

_"That's why I'm sending you. You are his protection. Step in to save him if it seems like he will lose. Otherwise, just stay on the sidelines." Tsunade explained._

_"But why send me? Wouldn't sending his team make more sense?"_

_"I couldn't be sure that his team could handle the enemy. Also, it would go against precepts to send a Genin team against such a powerful enemy." Tsunade stated. "And the two of you work well together."_

The pair continued walking down the path in the bright daylight.

Meanwhile, a ninja wearing a thin but body-covering robe sat reclined in a padded chair at the back of the house of a well-to-do merchant. Under his dark, shoulder-length hair, a ninja's forehead protector, marked by a hollow circle scratched with a horizontal line as if by a kunai, rested. The forehead protector of a missing-nin of the Hidden Village of the Moon. Floating in the air between his spread hands was a translucent sphere in which the images of two Konoha Village ninja walked down a path. The ninja's attention was entirely focused on those two, and so he didn't even notice when the merchant's wife, trembling with fear, placed a tray of tea next to his chair and left hastily, as if standing there for too long would invoke his wrath.

The tea sat and cooled in the dim light as the time passed while the ninja watched the two Konoha agents coming for him. _They sent one of the Sannin,_ he thought to himself. _But why did he bring such a useless kid? No worries. It's just another weakness for me to exploit._ The ninja watched for a while longer, then dismissed the ninjutsu he had scryed with. Leaning over to the tea tray, he poured a glass and took a sip before realizing the tea was now only room temperature.

"Ungrateful wretch, get in here and bring me some drinkable tea!" he shouted to the closed doors at the other end of the hall. The merchant's wife entered, trembling more violently this time, and gathered up the tray in her arms. "And get some more light in here, I'm not an owl!" he shouted as she left the room.

He reached under the robe and pulled out a large metal coin. The edges were engraved with several characters, unreadable to most, but to him they made perfect sense. _If this man and his wife don't start taking better care, I might have to use this on them. Just like the last family._ He smiled to himself and turned to view his collection.

Hanging on pegs behind the ninja were countless other coins, similar though not identical to the one he held, attached to chains in quantities varying from five to twenty. Pouches filled with loose coins sat along the floor under the hanging chains, and a pair of sashes made from countless overlapping coins were folded neatly on either side.

_I've accumulated quite a number now, _he thought. _Those Konoha Jounin certainly raised my number, too. I'll have to make some new chains soon._ He laughed softly as he recalled the gruesome event.

The ninja was brought back to the present by the entrance of the merchant's wife, bearing the tray of fresh tea. "I-I-I've brought the hot t-tea you requested, Sarashi-sama," she stammered as she slid the door shut behind her. She walked slowly toward the ninja and knelt while he poured his tea.

Sarashi drank the tea slowly and did not allow the woman to leave the tray. He liked watching the pitiful woman tremble. When he had drank his fill, he placed his cup back upon the tray and smacked it into the woman's face, spilling the remaining hot tea on her and the floor and shattering both the pitcher and the cup. "Why is it still so dim in here, woman? You're lucky that I'm in a good mood, or I would do to you what I did to the last family. Do you really want that to happen?" he demanded.

The merchant's wife shook all over from fright, but still managed a silent "no."

"Then get some light in this room, now!" he bellowed, and the woman fled, stumbling in her haste.

As soon as the woman had returned and lit more lights, Sarashi began to work on creating chains for the coins in the loose pouches. As strong as he considered himself to be, a fight with one of the Sannin would be quite difficult.


	2. Chapter 2 Nightfall

Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated. I'm also sorry that this chapter is really uneventful, and therefore doesn't really redeem my extended absence. I can't offer up a good excuse either, so you should probably stop reading this before you get even more annoyed at me. In the case that I do have anyone left reading this, please review for me. If I get anything wrong, point it out to me, please. As a final note, I still don't own Naruto... darn it.

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The first orange rays of sunset had just begun to make their ways through the trees when Naruto and Jiraiya arrived at their destination for that day, a city halfway to their destination and handpicked by Jiraiya for its nightlife. Traveling all the way to the edge of the Country of Fire in one day wasn't impossible, but it would be strenuous, and in Jiraiya's eyes it was an unnecessary exertion. Their enemy could wait, so long as he could have his fill of women and sake in this city.

As soon as they arrived, Jiraiya led Naruto to an inn and ordered a room for them both. A group of women walked past the inn's entrance shortly after the room had been ordered, and immediately Jiraiya took off after them, muttering back to Naruto to train in the inn room. Naruto huffed at his back in annoyance. "Train for what? I already mastered your technique, Perverted Hermit!" he shouted.

Jiraiya suddenly tensed and clenched a fist. He spun at Naruto and shouted, "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" _Especially when I'm going to go flirt_, he thought. The women giggled at him as they walked out of sight, and Jiraiya was forced to lower his head in defeat. "And besides, you haven't mastered the Rasengan, you've only learned it," he stated, cooling down a bit. "You still have to use two hands to pull it off."

Naruto frowned at Jiraiya, but knew he was right. He remembered Iruka-sensei always saying how you only truly mastered a technique when you could use it as easily as breathing.

"Lets go on up to the room, Naruto. We need to think up a plan, and we should be well rested for our fight tomorrow," Jiraiya said. He was actually a bit tired from walking all day, and after Naruto's interference he'd lost his motivation to spend a night on the town. He'd come back after they were done tomorrow.

They ascended the stairs of the inn and made their way to the room. When they entered, Naruto immediately began getting ready for bed, while Jiraiya pulled a bottle of sake out of his pack and sat to pour himself a drink. After Naruto had settled in a bit, and Jiraiya had sipped a bit of sake, they began their planning. "We don't know that much about this ninja, except that he knows a lot of techniques well and that he's originally from the Hidden Village of the Moon," Jiraiya stated. "Also, he must be very strong to have killed three Jounin. Ideally, we'd be able to assassinate this ninja silently, but we know too little to be sure of that. So we need a contingency plan."

Naruto looked questioningly at Jiraiya. "Will it really be that difficult? You're one of the Legendary Sannin. Even if this guy is more powerful than some Jounin, you could still beat him, right?"

Jiraiya sweated the question for a second. Tsunade hadn't specifically told him not to tell Naruto that he'd be staying out of it, but if Naruto knew that he was going to bail him out, Naruto wouldn't fight as well. He thought, and answered, "We don't know, remember? He might be extremely strong, and since he's been a missing-nin, no one really knows how strong he is. It's best to consider the worst case scenario, that he'll disable me, leaving only you to fight him."

If anything, Naruto only seemed to have his confidence boosted by Jiraiya's warning. "Hmm... I'm not good at this planning stuff, Perverted Hermit. Why don't we talk in the morning on the way there?" Naruto's short attention span kicked in again, and he was suddenly tired of talk and ready for sleep. Without waiting for a reply, Naruto rolled over onto his futon.

"Don't just blow this off!" Jiraiya fumed at Naruto, but decided he was right. It could wait till morning, and being well rested would be necessary. He followed Naruto's lead and both were asleep within minutes.

Elsewhere, Sarashi was also preparing for sleep, though in a bit more luxurious room. Having feasted on the cooking of the merchant's wife, Sarashi had concluded linking his coins on chains, and had chosen and set aside a full set of chains for the fight that was sure to occur the following day. He'd then made the wife prepare this sleeping room. He smiled to himself. This family was obedient, but he would have to move on after tomorrow. He wouldn't regret killing them, of course, but he could only hope that the next village had families pathetic enough to tremble and obey at his every word.

The last thing he did before he fell asleep was his normal routine. Snapping a coin off the bracelet on his wrist, he set it on the floor near his futon. Placing his hand over the coin, he released a small burst of chakra into the coin. Instantly, the coin burst in a bright flash, then dimmed and disappeared. Sarashi smirked. _I hope this family doesn't decide that tonight would be a good night to try to kill me. Otherwise I'll wake up to some charred corpses, and that'd be no fun._ With that, the missing-nin went to sleep peacefully.


End file.
